The Railways could not give any concrete reasons for the fact that tenders for the purchase of air-conditioned (AC) local trains were floated and immediately withdrawn. Two years later, Indian Railways approved the deck for the purchase of 238 AC local trains.
Railway Board Chairman and CEO Satish Kumar held several meetings with officials of Central Railway and Western Railway on August 4 to outline the next steps.
Kumar also announced that two prototype of automatic door closing system in non-AC local trains will be ready by December and will be implemented gradually. The need for more AC local trains in Mumbai's suburban network has been increasing for some time now, as it makes travel easier.
Explaining the current move, Kumar said, "We are planning 238 AC local trains of 12 coaches. We have completed all the challenges (regarding the tender process) and will invite tenders soon."
Central Railway currently operates 80 services carrying an average of 79,000 passengers per day, while Western Railway operates 109 services carrying an average of 1.25 lakh passengers per day.
The decision to procure additional ore AC local trains has been taken after Union Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnav made the assurance earlier this year. It was stalled after protests by passenger groups against exorbitant ticket prices.
The project comes under the Mumbai Urban Transport Project (MUTP). As per the scheme, MUTP-3 aims to procure 47 AC local trains at an estimated cost of INR 3,491 crore.
MUTP-3A aims to procure 191 trains at an estimated cost of INR 15,802 crore. In June 2023, the Mumbai Rail Vikas Corporation (MRVC) floated global tenders for the project but the decision was postponed, which delayed the procurement.
Meanwhile, Kumar said that non-AC trains with automatic closing doors will start by the end of 2025. The prototype is being manufactured at the Integral Coach Factory in Chennai, after which the rest of the fleet will be increased.
Also, to accommodate more passengers, the railways will convert the existing 12-coach trains into 15-coach trains.
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